Nurturing the future generation
“Skillseed aspires to carve out a safe space to generate opportunities, to provide exposure and challenge individuals to dream big, and empower them with the tools to make the changes they want to see, regardless of where in the world they find themselves, and how daunting the environment may be."
Phua Huijia, WEGCA 2019 Eco Star of Asia Award Winner
Founding Director, Skillseed.
Phua Huijia is an entrepreneur, educator and environmentalist. She founded Skillseed in 2013 with the vision of unleashing human potential for social good through an asset-based approach. Huijia straddles both the community empowerment (skilled volunteerism projects) and capacity building (training) arms of Skillseed, and therefore has a nuanced understanding of ground needs, while being able to convey deep insights in a candid and humorous manner. Over the years, Huijia has designed and facilitated sessions for a diverse range of participants, from youth with disabilities to local retirees, students from different countries and cultural backgrounds, fellow social sector partners, ground up movements, teachers and corporate leaders.
Skillseed also trained more than 300 civil servants including senior top level Public Servants in citizen engagement and community co-creation skills.
As one of the Principal Trainers at Skillseed, Huijia also conducted similar human-centered leadership skills training for CSC milestone programmes such as the Senior Management Programme’s (SMP’s) Community Attachment Programme. Huijia is also part of CSC-MCCY’s Partnerships and Engagement Experts Panel, where panelists can be engaged to provide expertise in Engagement and Facilitation Strategy and Design within the public service.
Huijia founded several community initiatives, which included an environmentally and socially conscious student-run café while pursuing her Master’s Degree at Yale. It achieved a Silver Rank under a nationwide Sustainability Tracking Assessment & Rating System for teaching students sustainable business skills.
She was the first recipient of the Kroon Cup from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (Yale F&ES), which recognizes individuals who embody stewardship and implement projects that engage and inspire the larger community. Currently a mother of two, Huijia spreads her time across being tested by her young toddler and newborn, mentoring her team and informally advising younger social enterprise leaders.
She is highly sought after as a trainer and speaker at organisations such as the Singapore Committee for United Nations (UN) Women, the Rotary Club of Singapore, and more. She is also an advisor for The SMU Impact Accelerator, a 12-week programme aiming to help social ventures with SMU members get to the next level in their entrepreneurial journeys.
